How to Choose a Coaching Program
How do I know if a Coaching Program is effective?
It is hard to evaluate a program before you have spent thousands of dollars on it. It can be scary to take the leap of faith and make a sizable investment in one. Many programs available simply fill you with more information. The world is not short of information. If information was all you needed, you could google all the information you could ever want or need to succeed in business.
You may have found that the hundreds of books you’ve read over the years were great the moment you read them, but then found their way to collecting more dust on the bookshelf.
A solid coaching program is not just about feeding you more information. It is about taking you ‘the tool’ (sorry, not in the derogative sense) and honing it to be as effective as possible. This doesn’t mean to load you up with more information that is not properly used.
There is much more to your success than information. You have to be ‘coached’ to be more effective at using whatever else is put into you. Consider the Kitchenaide Mixer that likely sits on your countertop. What would happen if we simply added more and more ingredients to it, then turned it on? Without a recipe, without knowing what exactly we were making, we just added flour, salt, milk, eggs, spices of various kinds, etc… who knows what we would end up with. Probably some random mess that would force us to start over again – this time with a design in mind.
Your design is your recipe. Unfortunately, most of us failed to start with a recipe, and now we are left with a product that we don’t know how to fix.
Having a highly trained coach, will help you understand what the ideal design (recipe) would be for you to create the blueprint for the ultimate business design that would satisfy YOUR personal needs and lifestyle.
Unfortunately, coaching has become a watered-down industry with anyone and everyone thinking it is as easy as disseminating new business practices.
I started in this business 20 years ago, when the only real context for coaching was around athletics. At 24, I attended my first coaching conference only to leave feeling like I was a seasoned expert. It was great for my ego, but it taught me that many years ago, just how truly complicated a skill being an effective coach requires.
A few simple keys to keep in mind:
Don’t hire a cheap coach – This is clearly an area that you ‘get what you pay for’. You will get no greater return on your investment, then making a solid investment into you (the most important ‘tool’ to your business). Unfortunately, I talk to people all the time that tried hiring a coach, only to find themselves deterred by the experience. They went cheap and got what they paid for.
Ask what their Coaching Process is- If it doesn’t take into account your specific design, or helping you figure out your design, it might just be another training program. Training and Coaching are two distinct skills.
Don’t order a coaching program online – You should have the opportunity to speak with a coach first to ensure the coaching relationship is the right fit. We have several coaches with various backgrounds – all who have been through our process as a client, found such tremendous value in the process, they now deliver the work to others. With different personalities and experience levels, we can fit the client with the right coach. We have a Personal Assessment that EVERY client must complete so we can get to know YOU.
Don’t sign a long term contract- If the coach has any confidence in their process, they won’t make you sign anything more than a monthly contract. We have been using monthly contracts since we started Getting Results almost 20 years ago – yet, we still have the strongest retention rate of clients. Why? Because of Value. It’s simple. Are we cheap? No. But we do provide value… Our value exceeds what our clients pay making it a highly effective investment.
There is a real Psychology to effective coaching. It takes experience working one on one with individuals to hone the skillset of coaching. If you are serious about hiring a coach to help you achieve real results, complete our Personal Assessment to see if we are a good fit for you.
